This invention relates generally to electrical female terminals and more specifically to electrical female terminals that are attached to electric cables for use in sealed electrical connectors of the "plug through" type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,946,402 granted to Randy L. Fink and Bruce J. Serbin Aug. 7, 1990.
This patent discloses a "plug through" type sealed electrical connector that has an elastomeric seal that is mounted on the cable end of a connector body before the electrical female terminals that are attached to the ends of electric cables are installed. These electrical female terminals are inserted into terminal cavities of the connector body through aligned holes in the elastomeric seal, that is, the electrical female terminals are "plugged through" the seal. The holes are sized to fit tightly around the electric cables when the electrical female terminals are installed so as to seal the cable end of the electrical connector.
It is already known to provide electrical female terminals of two piece construction for these "plug through" arrangements comprising a main terminal member and a protective can of hood. In these known terminals, the main terminal member has spring contact fingers at one end and crimp means at the other end to attach the main terminal member to the end of an electric cable. The protective can or hood surrounds the spring contact fingers to protect the fingers and provide a round, protrusion free contact end that facilitates the electrical female terminals being pushed through tight holes in the elastomeric seal during installation.
This two piece terminal is expensive to manufacture because of poor material utilization and slow manufacturing processes. Two strips of stock are required and the assembly speed is limited to 200 parts per minute. Quality control and inspection are also difficult because contact plating is not accessible.
It is also known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,538,491 granted to Bruce C. Longenecker, Armond R. de Lyon and Lex. D. Kensinger Nov. 3, 1970 to provide an electrical pin receptacle PR of one piece construction.
This pin receptacle comprises a spring contact assembly (7) that is inside a barrel member (12). The spring contact assembly (7) and the barrel member (12) are integrally attached to each other by an extension (2) that is reversely bent upon itself.
This design reduces construction costs because of its one piece construction. However, the pin receptacle PR is not suitable for a sealed electrical connector of the "plug through" type described above because the pin receptacle PR does not have any provision for attaching the pin receptacle PR to an electric cable. Moreover, the pin receptacle PR does have a round, protrusion free contact end that would facilitate the pin receptacle being pushed through a tight hole in an elastomeric seal easily. This is due primarily to the presence of flared mouth (11) and cooperating ears (13) that provide stop means to limit the movement of the pin receptacle PR within a hole of a printed circuit board of carrier member.
It is also known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,833 granted to Dewey F. Mobley and Janice M. Warren Dec. 29, 1987 to provide an electrical socket member (14) that has a split socket section (34) that is provided with three equally spaced, inwardly directed ribs (40). The ribs (40) firmly engage the outer surface (46) of a pin member (16) when it is inserted into the tubular section (34).
The electrical socket member (14) is also of one piece construction. However, it has several drawbacks. For instance, the ribs (40) are non-compliant contacts and consequently the socket member (14) has high engagement force characteristics, tight tolerance requirements, high contact stress and little tolerance for misalignment of the pin terminal (12). Moreover the socket member (14) has a pin receiving receptacle that includes a conic support section (57) that has a 180 degree opening (54) which provides the necessary resilience for the split socket section (34) to receive the pin terminal (12). This opening exposes sharp edges that make the socket member (14) unsuitable for use in a sealed electrical connector of the "plug through" type. In addition, the non-compliant contacts in the form of inwardly directed ribs (40) require a guide section (38) which is difficult to form. This limits the choice of materials for the socket member (14) and also diminishes the suitability of the socket member (14) for a sealed electrical connector of the "plug through" type. Furthermore, the pin receiving receptacle of the socket member (14) has a split socket section (34) that is structurally supported on an enlarged tubular section (55) that would limit the use of the socket member (14) to large diameter electric cables in a "plug through" seal arrangement.